This white paper discusses how out-of-school providers can inspire more underrepresented youth to become the innovators and problem-solvers of tomorrow. Boys & Girls Clubs of America convened key stakeholders from higher education, government, corporations and nonprofit organizations at the STEM Great Think, the first national thought leadership forum to combine innovation and creativity with STEM programming in the out-of-school time environment. The purpose of the STEM Great Think was to develop a plan for establishing strategic partnerships that advance STEM education during out-of-school
Through this review of research on public engagement with science, Feinstein, Allen, and Jenkins advocate supporting students as “competent outsiders”—untrained in formal sciences, yet using science in ways relevant to their lives. Both formal and informal settings can be well suited for work in which students translate scientific content and practices into meaningful actions.
This poster was presented at the NSF AISL PI meeting in Washington D.C. in 2014. The poster describes the impact of Be A Scientist and explores Iridescent's strategic vision.
This full scale research and development collaborative project between Smith College and Springfield Technical Community College improves technical literacy for children in the area of engineering education through the Through My Window learning environment. The instructional design of the learning environment results from the application of innovative educational approaches based on research in the learning sciences—Egan's Imaginative Education (IE) and Knowledge Building (KB). The project provides idea-centered engineering curriculum that facilitates deep learning of engineering concepts through the use of developmentally appropriate narrative and interactive multimedia via interactive forums and blogs, young adult novels (audio and text with English and Spanish versions), eight extensive tie-in activities, an offline teachers’ curriculum guide, and social network connections and electronic portfolios. Targeting traditionally underrepresented groups in engineering—especially girls—the overarching goals of the project are improving attitudes toward engineering; providing a deeper understanding of what engineering is about; supporting the development of specific engineering skills; and increasing interest in engineering careers. The project will address the following research questions: What is the quality of the knowledge building discourse? Does it get better over time? Will students, given the opportunity, extend the discourse to new areas? What scaffolding does the learning environment need to support novice participants in this discourse? Does the use of narrative influence participation in knowledge building? Are certain types of narratives more effective in influencing participation in knowledge building? Evaluative feedback for usability, value effectiveness, and ease of implementation from informal educators and leaders from the Connecticut After School Network CTASN) will be included. The evaluation will include documentation on the impact of narrative and multimedia tools in the area of engineering education. Currently, there is very little research regarding children and young teen engagement in engineering education activities using narrative as a structure to facilitate learning engineering concepts and principles. The research and activities developed from this proposed project contributes to the field of Informal Science and Engineering Education. The results from this project could impact upper elementary and middle-school aged children and members from underrepresented communities and girls in a positive way.
Kinetic City After School is a project supported by a prior NSF award that has produced over 80 activities in areas typical of after school activities such as computer games/simulations, hands-on activities, active play, and art and writing. This pathways project, KC Empower, will redesign and test five activities of the 80 activities currently developed by Kinetic City using a new approach to increase the representation of children and youth with disabilities in informal science settings. The project will test how universal design principles can be integrated with new technologies, not available when most after school STEM content was created, to address the needs of students with disabilities. The technologies used in the redesign include advanced mobile platforms and applications; search engines that sift through audio, image and video files; gaming input devices that respond to body movements; and information restructuring that allows multiple representations of content. The project will test how universal design guidelines will work with new technologies, in the short-term providing hands-on activities more accessible to students with disabilities, while increasing access for all students. The project is expected to lead to a full scale development project that will update all modules in Kinetic City After School. The target audience is 3rd - 5th grade students. The hypothesis of the project is that designing for disability can strengthen activities designed to increase science knowledge. Rather than making accommodations for persons with disabilities, it is the environment and design that are disabled, and it is better educational practice to rethink the activity from the point of view of all learners, including those with disabilities. Thus the use of universal design will address how best to present material for all users while influenced by the challenges presented by disabled users. The project includes the Coalition for Science After School, the Center for Applied Special Technology and the Afterschool Alliance.
'Be a Scientist!' is a full-scale development project that examines the impact of a scalable, STEM afterschool program which trains engineers to develop and teach inquiry-based Family Science Workshops (FSWs) in underserved communities. This project builds on three years of FSWs which demonstrate improvements in participants' science interest, knowledge, and self-efficacy and tests the model for scale, breadth, and depth. The project partners include the Viterbi School of Engineering at the University of Southern California, the Albert Nerken Engineering Department at the Cooper Union, the Los Angeles Museum of Natural History, and the New York Hall of Science. The content emphasis is physics and engineering and includes topics such as aerodynamics, animal locomotion, automotive engineering, biomechanics, computer architecture, optics, sensors, and transformers. The project targets underserved youth in grades 1-5 in Los Angeles and New York, their parents, and engineering professionals. The design is grounded in motivation theory and is intended to foster participants' intrinsic motivation and self-direction while the comprehensive design takes into account the cultural, social, and intellectual needs of diverse families. The science activities are provided in a series of Family Science Workshops which take place in afterschool programs in eight partner schools in Los Angeles and at the New York Hall of Science in New York City. The FSWs are taught by undergraduate and graduate engineering students with support from practicing engineers who serve as mentors. The primary project deliverable is a five-year longitudinal evaluation designed to assess (1) the impact of intensive training for engineering professionals who deliver family science activities in community settings and (2) families' interest in and understanding of science. Additional project deliverables include a 16-week training program for engineering professionals, 20 physics-based workshops and lesson plans, Family Science Workshops (40 in LA and 5 in NY), a Parent Leadership Program and social networking site, and 5 science training videos. This project will reach nearly one thousand students, parents, and student engineers. The multi-method evaluation will be conducted by the Center for Children and Technology at the Education Development Center. The evaluation questions are as follows: Are activities such as recruitment, training, and FSWs aligned with the project's goals? What is the impact on families' interest in and understanding of science? What is the impact on engineers' communication skills and perspectives about their work? Is the project scalable and able to produce effective technology tools and develop long-term partnerships with schools? Stage 1 begins with the creation of a logic model by stakeholders and the collection of baseline data on families' STEM experiences and knowledge. Stage 2 includes the collection of formative evaluation data over four years on recruitment, training, co-teaching by informal educators, curriculum development, FSWs, and Parent Leadership Program implementation. Finally, a summative evaluation addresses how well the project met the goals associated with improving families' understanding of science, family involvement, social networking, longitudinal impact, and scalability. A comprehensive dissemination plan extends the project's broader impacts in the museum, engineering, evaluation, and education professional communities through publications, conference presentations, as well as web 2.0 tools such as blogs, YouTube, an online social networking forum for parents, and websites. 'Be a Scientist!' advances the field through the development and evaluation of a model for sustained STEM learning experiences that helps informal science education organizations broaden participation, foster collaborations between universities and informal science education organizations, increase STEM-based social capital in underserved communities, identify factors that develop sustained interest in STEM, and empower parents to co-invest and sustain a STEM program in their communities.
The Young Developers program is an after school program conceptualised and run by The P-STEM Foundation. It introduces computer programming and design concepts to high school age students from South African historically disadvantaged communities, where the majority of students have had little or no interaction with computers. Young Developers uses Self Organised Learning Methodology and involves introducing a series of increasingly complex challenges / questions that the participants have to collaboratively solve. The first module is run in Scratch with the final objective being the creation of a racing car game. The second module is run in Python using Turtle graphics with an objective of creating an animation. This program runs as pods in each of the communities that the P-STEM foundation works in. Each pod has up to 30 teens from the age of 10 to 18. Each pod is peer led and peer driven, and the pace of learning is determined by the participants. In 2015, we would also like to introduce national competitions which pods participate in against other pods.
This article describes an educator's experience in engaging reluctant male students in writing by leading an afterschool writing program. Write After School offers choice within structure and encourages interaction in ways designed to engage reluctant writers, allowing them to choose their own topics, receive feedback, and talk about their work.
This article describes discussions about the relationship between afterschool programs and the Common Core Standards at a networking meeting sponsored by the Robert Bowne Foundation for out-of-school time (OST) providers in New York City in the fall of 2013. The meeting was entitled "Introducing the Common Core Learning Standards: What Are They? What Do We Need to Know?"
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Suzanne MartenSara HillAnne Lawrence
One in three children in the US is overweight or obese. One in five lives in food-insecure households that struggle to put food on the table. Both problems are linked to poor academic performance, behavior problems, and high rates of school absenteeism. To address these issues, the Alliance for a Healthier Generation's Out-of-School Time initiative has been working since 2011 in eight cities to support the adoption of the National Afterschool Association's healthy eating and physical activity (HEPA) standards by before-school, afterschool, and summer programs.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Daniel HatcherCrystal Weedall FitzsimonsJill Turley
This article reviews a book that provides a detailed account of the interviews, observations, research, and successes and failures that led to the development of Project Coach, a program that helps youth gain life skills through mastery of a sport. Project Coach empowers and employs teenagers to become coaches and academic mentors to elementary youth in the community.
What would it be like to increase the number of youth-serving volunteers who can competently lead science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) activities? This question guided the Inquiry in the Community project, launched in 2008. Along with Girl Scout staff colleagues and volunteers, the project created a system for embedding inquiry-based science into a youth development organization.